SAUGUS — The WIN Waste Innovations site seems to be having an impact outside the town limits.
State Representative Jessica Giannino of Revere has three bills centered around the Saugus waste facility. Giannino claims that the landfill and incinerator affect constituents in her city of about 51,000 as well as in Saugus.
Other bills aim to have the facility shut down by 2024 at the earliest, and to also prevent companies from constructing similar facilities near designated areas of critical environmental concern.
Also, one of the bills that is being introduced hopes to give local boards of health within 1.5 miles of any such facility the power to adopt “reasonable rules and regulations” to protect the public from “unnecessary or excessive noise, frequent and unwarranted smoke, and obnoxious odors.” The bill would also give the board the power to issue orders, citations, or civil violations if any of those rules were to be violated.
During the hearing last week, the Revere Democrat said that at present time only those in Saugus can have a say in the operation while those in Revere are equally impacted if not more. Giannino’s district covers parts of both Revere and Saugus.
Anthony Cogliano., chair of the Saugus Board of Selectmen believes that the legislation might be a bit premature due to some of the work that the Wheelabrator sub-committee, of which he is a part, is doing (WIN was formerly called Wheelabrator). Cogliano thinks there is a better way to work with the facility than legislation.
“I think what we’ve done for the past year and a half since I have been back on the board is work with them. They have been doing some great things for the town and I think they will continue to do so. We are about to announce an agreement that our committee has come up with Wheelabrator to improve the quality of life for Saugus,Lynn, and Revere residents. I think it’s going to be something that everyone is quite happy to see.”
Cogliano still feels that it’s important to make sure that areas of critical environmental concern are protected. He also just took a group on a tour of the facility and some of the people that were on the committee were pleasantly surprised with what they saw.
“It’s not your typical dump or landfill that I think people have in the back of their head. I think they made some great strides to be a good neighbor and I think by working with them we are going to get where we need to go.”
